Setback Could Help Turn Tide

September 17, 2003

The acrimonious break-up of the World Trade Organization's meeting in Mexico is a setback for globalization efforts. It also sends a message to the United States and the organizers of a trade meeting scheduled for Miami: Get ready for some stiff opposition in the conference rooms, and on the streets.

The gathering in Cancun ended abruptly when delegates from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia quit the talks. They accused industrialized countries of intransigently subsidizing their farmers by as much as $300 billion a year. Dissident delegates from the developing world say the subsidies lock their farm products out of the richest markets, costing them as much as $24 billion every year.

The United States and the European Union insisted a compromise could have been reached if the delegates had not left the table. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick complained the heated rhetoric overshadowed meaningful progress on the divisive issue.

The walkout is a serious setback for the WTO, a Geneva-based group that is a forum for resolving international trade disputes. The WTO is facing a January 2005 deadline for a new agreement to remove trade barriers across much of the planet. The collapse of the summit at the Mexican beach resort almost assures the WTO will not meet its self-imposed deadline.

The fiasco also clouds a Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiating round scheduled for Miami in November. The same fractious issues could dominate that gathering. Anti-globalization protesters, who leave Cancun with momentum, must surely be targeting the South Florida meeting.

That said, the Cancun confrontation could be a turning point for globalization if the emerging power bloc is willing to deal in a pragmatic and sober way.

The alliance of developing countries, led by China, India and Brazil, could bring the leverage necessary to tackle the obstacles barring free and fair trade. The upstarts in the so-called Group of 21 that challenged the farm subsidies must now be called upon to address other stubborn roadblocks, including environmental and labor issues in their own countries.

Up to now, the globalization effort has largely been prodded by industrialized nations looking for markets. The Cancun break-up changes the agenda. If the free trade cause is going to move forward, it must now do so in ways that promote development and equality among trading partners in the developed and developing world.